Audio 3:40
Reintroduction of dingo could save endangered species

Nicola Gage
Fri Sep 28 13:48:00 EST 2012

Some of Australia's top scientists say governments need to seriously consider reintroducing dingoes to the landscape. They say reintroducing the top order predator to specific areas could be the only way to save thousands of endangered species on the verge of extinction.

Transcript

ASHLEY HALL: Opinions have long been divided about whether to the use the Australian dingo to protect native mammal populations.

But scientists say governments need to seriously consider reintroducing the top order predator to the landscape. They say it could be the only way to rescue thousands of endangered species.

Nicola Gage reports.

NICOLA GAGE: About 40 per cent of the country's native species is listed as threatened, or close to extinction.

Dr Tony Friend is president of the Australian Mammal Society.

TONY FRIEND: We do have a big problem with mammals in Australia.

NICOLA GAGE: Many of these mammals fall prey to feral cats and foxes. Dr Friend says it's been a losing battle.

TONY FRIEND: We are getting reasonably good at controlling foxes in the local areas but cats are a huge problem, partly exacerbated by removing foxes, so once the foxes are taken out, cats do well and basically step into the feet of the foxes.

NICOLA GAGE: The same problem has occurred with the removal of the dingo. Dr Friend says it's allowed the feral species to thrive and he says the current approach to their control is costly and counterproductive.

TONY FRIEND: Traditional ways have been the poisoning and shooting. Big fenced areas have been set up as well, which is probably the ultimate solution for local areas but it is not going to be the solution in the long term because that disrupts a whole lot of processes like movement of genetic material between different areas and also there is a limit to the populations that you can actually build up in those areas.

NICOLA GAGE: Dr Menna Jones is from the University of Tasmania. She's looking at reintroducing top order predators to rebalance specific ecosystems.

As well as dingoes, she's finding out whether the Tasmanian devil could also control invasive species.

MENNA JONES: If we can put a large predator back into the ecosystem where it has become extinct, it can do the job of controlling feral cats or foxes 24 hours a day, seven days a week without the need for an ongoing management program that costs a lot of money and costs a lot of effort.

NICOLA GAGE: Do you believe new ways need to be looked into this to find out if we can introduce species?

MENNA JONES: Probably what we need to establish first is how effective can these predators be in suppressing or controlling the invasive predators in the Australian system and once we can establish that, we can experimentally reintroduce them.

NICOLA GAGE: That research is happening Australia-wide.

One recent study in South Australia's north recorded a reduction in feral cat and fox numbers with the introduction of dingoes.

Hannah Spronk is from Arid Recovery, a conservation group based just outside Roxby Downs, who's heading that research.

HANNAH SPRONG: All seven of the foxes that we released into that pen there were killed within 17 days by the dingoes. They did autopsies I suppose you could say and the deaths were attributed to attacks by dingoes and all six of the feral cats that were in the pen died within 20 to 103 days after release.

NICOLA GAGE: It's no wonder they have a bad reputation. Dingoes cause hundreds of thousands of dollars damage each year to sheep stocks but international expert and wildlife ecologist Professor Roy Dennis says their reintroduction could be controlled to stop that from happening.